Page 31 of Fallen Star

Another child comes for me, but my mother screams and runs forward, pushing me aside and attacking the creature. The child corpse falls on her, and they roll to the ground. Another two pounce her, pinning her to the ground as spiders find purchase on my mother's skin, digging into her as she screams and fights. One child chokes her while the spiders continue eating away at her flesh. I need to stop this!

Frantically, I tear the shard from Levi's grip and place it back on the altar. The children freeze, their hands falling away from Dean and my mother, and they collapse to the ground as the spiders crawl back into their dead bodies.

All is instantly calm.

Dean runs over to me, clutching my arm. "Are you okay?"

I nod, but notice my mother is still on the ground, unmoving, her body shuddering with wounds that look poisonous. She's still breathing, but barely.

"We can't remove the shard from the pillar," I say, my voice hoarse. "The pieces have to be put together on the pillar. Give them to me!"

Levi, predictably, shoves me out of the way and into Dean's arms, as he stalks to the remaining shard. "You think I'm going to let you have the power for yourself. Stupid girl." His eyes glow with malice as he unlatches the pieces from his belt and clicks them into place. As each piece is returned, it fuses with the others, until all four are together at last.

The Fallen Star of Nirandel is beautiful. Breathtaking. It's an egg shaped orb that glows with so much power it's nearly blinding, and it calls to me. Sings to me in an ancient song that fills my soul with something new and unexpected.

Levi smiles, jubilant at his success. "Finally I shall be restored to my proper power. I will take over Inferna, claim my rightful place, and use the blood of the Unseen Lord to wipe away the sun and give vampires the rule of all the worlds at last!"

Just add a throaty "mwahahah" at the end of that and you have a proper cartoon villain speech, I swear to god. This guy is ridiculous.

Levi lifts the Star off the pedestal, and Dean braces for battle, but the zombie children do not come back to life. I knew they wouldn't.

Just like I know what's going to happen next.

But why spoil the surprise?

Levi does what any villain would do who has been granted all the superpowers he ever wanted. He channels that power and proceeds to kill us all.

Bad guys win.

The End.

Ha! Just kidding! I wouldn't leave you hanging like that.

But he does try to kill us all. He sucks in the power and points it at us. Dean looks at me and, noticing how chill I am, relaxes. I realize his trust in me runs deep. This makes me a bit glowey inside, but I still have a bad guy to defeat and my mom to check on, so I'm going to have to wait on exploring those feelings.

"Any last words before I disintegrate you all?" Levi asks.

And I'm actually touched he's giving us this. It's considerate, for a supervillain.

"Nah, I'm good." I turn to Dean. "You?"

Dean shakes his head. "I think we're okay here. Fire away, brother. Do what you've always wanted to do."

Levi cocks his head at that, a little confused, but so confident in his next move he doesn't pause to consider it.

His bad.

Because when he tries to use the power of the Star, his face turns ashen, his body shakes and spasms, and he falls to the ground, growing weaker rather than stronger. "What did you do?" he asks as the Star falls out of his hand and rolls over to me.

I pick it up and stroke it, feeling the warmth of the power flow into me. "Oops, my bad. There was one little detail I forgot to tell you. This," I say, holding up the egg, "was never the Fallen Star. It's a price of the power. It drains life, but it can't give it. You wanted to power up, but you actually just sucked your own life-force right out."

"What are you talking about?" he asks, his voice weak, his breath shallow. "If that's not the Star, what is?"

I see the moment realization dawns on Dean's face. He's a smart boy, that one.

"I've been the Fallen Star of Nirandel all along, asshole. And next time you see me, you'll be in chains."

Alex Stone